[HN Gopher] Tuesday was my last day as CEO of CircleUp
___________________________________________________________________
Tuesday was my last day as CEO of CircleUp
Author : rmason
Score : 183 points
Date : 2020-10-15 20:05 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (twitter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| The 6-page e-mail sent to the difficult former board member is
| interesting:
| https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tEc9ETL4tjfTmNbpwJJ5OSx...
|
| Given that he posted the e-mail contents online and wrote it in a
| way to narrate the board member's own bad actions, I'm assuming
| the real intent to was to warn others against working with this
| person. He stops short of naming the difficult board member, but
| it wouldn't exactly be difficult to figure out who it was from
| all the clues.
| blantonl wrote:
| Name the board member. The former CEO can be dignified by
| keeping his name confidential , but this is a founder and
| entrepreneur discussion forum and this deserves discussion
| about this individual. It is also relevant to the story.
|
| There is absolutely nothing wrong with knowing about, and
| discussing who it is and possibly who else has had the same
| experiences - as long as it isn't mudslinging but a
| professional discussion. Similar to the letter.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I think just publishing the event without posting the email
| leaves enough of a trail for another CEO to reach out and ask
| "Hey, we're going to work with XYZ and know he used to be on
| your board. Any advice for us?"
| hinkley wrote:
| Nobody likes to date people who are always trashing their
| exes. Board members end up choosing the CEO, do they not?
| There are degrees of dirty laundry airing that could end up
| burning bridges with people you've never even met before.
|
| Meanwhile the next CEO knows there's a rat, and can work out
| for themselves who that might be before their first 100 days
| are up, by which point most managers have been typecast.
| After that it's very hard to fully take advantage of major
| new insights you've had. It's an uphill battle to make major
| changes to your style of management.
| khaledtaha wrote:
| Let's not do that. I'm incredibly appreciative of OPs
| transparency here. As a person who is susceptible to the same
| degree of stress and mental health toil, let's not make the
| story about the investor but rather around the stresses of
| being a CEO.
| exolymph wrote:
| You can't control what people are interested in, what they
| want to know more about.
| xyzzy_plugh wrote:
| Why not both?
| fairity wrote:
| I agree that the problematic investor shouldn't be outed
| here. The investor isn't here to defend himself, and outing
| him will cause him irreparable (and perhaps undue)
| reputational damage.
|
| [edit] Is giving the accused a platform to defend himself
| that unpopular of an opinion? Online shaming often gets out
| of hand and goes too far. I recommend this TED talk: https://
| www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_when_online_shaming_goe...
| birdyrooster wrote:
| What forum should he be outed in exactly?
| fairity wrote:
| There are a couple options that come to mind:
|
| 1) Contact the accused party and ask him for a written
| response. By giving him the opportunity to defend
| himself, you get a more balanced view and decrease the
| likelihood of cruel & unusual punishment.
|
| 2) Out the investor in private forums where
| data/information that arises after the publication of
| this article can be fully considered. YC and many other
| founder networks have investor databases for this
| purpose.
| munk-a wrote:
| 1 isn't a terrible idea in most circumstances but with
| investors you're more likely to get a C&D than a fair
| response given the line of work and the importance of
| reputation to the process.
|
| 2 - no, I disagree strongly for two reasons:
|
| Keeping information in a quiet private forum makes it
| inaccessible to people at large. This means the next CEO
| who runs up against this investor is mostly completely
| unaware of their past actions.
|
| And, honestly, hackernews is probably the single most
| relevant forum you could find to discuss this on - it has
| a general lean toward tech but it is run by ycombinator
| which is specifically interested in all things
| investment.
| fairity wrote:
| > Keeping information in a quiet private forum makes it
| inaccessible to people at large. This means the next CEO
| who runs up against this investor is mostly completely
| unaware of their past actions.
|
| I agree this is the downside of my proposed approach.
| But, the alternative is a world where someone's
| reputation can be irreparably damaged by unsubstantiated
| claims made by one person.
|
| Do you want to live in a world where someone's reputation
| and livelihood can be destroyed by unsubstantiated
| claims? You may think I'm overstating the potential
| damage, but I think people generally underestimate the
| damage the internet mob can inflict on a person.
| munk-a wrote:
| There are some societal tools that exist to fight against
| baseless slander in a public forum but, tbh, the US has
| resisted adopting those.
|
| I would rather live in a world where the powerful can be
| baselessly attacked compared to a world where the weak
| are unable to fairly attack them - if we need to err on
| one side or the other I prefer to put up with trolls and
| scammers.
| yowlingcat wrote:
| Well. It seems like you can't narrate the latter without the
| former. What would you propose?
| anon_usr_134 wrote:
| If you read the email it states that the investor was a lead.
| Series A was led by USV and the email already ruled them out.
| This investor sold right during or after the series C. might be
| Brendan Dickinson from Canaan for the Series B.
| maest wrote:
| It's clear that people in the industry will be able to figure
| out who the letter is addressed to - and I would be surprised
| if the CircleUp CEO didn't realise this. So the censorship is
| mostly for show.
|
| The fact that the VC isn't named, makes it difficult for them
| to reply in a public way and respond to some of those points.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > and I would be surprised if the CircleUp CEO didn't realise
| this.
|
| That was the point I was trying to make:
|
| The CEO went out of his way to make the board member as easy
| to identify as he could, short of spelling his name out.
|
| I'm not suggesting that people try to reverse engineer it,
| but clearly the open letter was meant to be partially
| retaliatory and partially a warning to others in this space.
| sineus wrote:
| Given the timeline, that he was lead investor, the name
| length, the experience of the VC, the current and past
| board members, it's easy to figure out the missing name.
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CircleUp Confirms the name
| which would also fit in the redacted parts of the email.
| tschwimmer wrote:
| Where are you seeing the current and past board members?
| That's what I'm trying to diff against but I can't find
| good sources.
| ericjang wrote:
| If you highlight the name, the highlighted text is
| {{14}}. I don't think the lead investor's name is
| necessarily 6 characters. FWIW, I was deeply curious
| about who the investor was and spent some time
| investigating who lead the fundraising rounds on
| Crunchbase, but I couldn't narrow it down sufficiently.
| [deleted]
| skybrian wrote:
| It seems like if many people don't know, then it actually
| makes a difference that they don't know. I don't know the
| details but it seems possibly important, not just for show?
|
| See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_stair
| [deleted]
| rmason wrote:
| Here's the blog post that goes along with that tweet stream:
|
| https://ryancaldbeck.medium.com/transitions-fa7ce4af435
| a-posteriori wrote:
| Adding the google cache. Looks like the medium is down.
|
| http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-EgQnmp...
| ghiculescu wrote:
| I was wondering where I knew that name from... there's a module
| about Ryan & CircleUp in the HBS Disruptive Innovation Course -
| https://online.hbs.edu/courses/disruptive-strategy/
|
| It was one of the more interesting companies profiled and I found
| the module very cool. If you read this Ryan - thanks for being
| part of it, and all the best for the future.
| madrox wrote:
| Reading this is like reading about my own experience. I went
| through a similar period several years ago as an executive. I was
| leading engineering for three separate products and dealing with
| some very difficult stakeholders. I was also in a new
| relationship that I was trying very hard to maintain. The stress
| of all these things happening to me at once was colossal. I
| experienced a constellation of bad health symptoms. What I can't
| believe, in hindsight, was when I asked my doctor if this could
| be stress related. He asked, "do you feel stressed?" I thought
| for a second and said, "no."
|
| I've never written anything about that time, despite wanting to,
| but this is the thread I wish I could write. Details aside the
| emotions are all the same. It felt cathartic to read this.
| cthulhua wrote:
| Wow, this really struck home with me. I left a FAANG about a year
| ago to be employee #1 at a startup. 6 months ago, after some
| headaches and vision issues, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
| My work has been great through all this, but I can't imagine the
| additional stress of being a CEO whilst dealing with all that.
| duxup wrote:
| I don't want to digress too much here but I thought this was
| interesting:
|
| > Believing that to attract a great CEO we would need more than
| two years of runway
|
| What is involved in this process that takes 2 years?
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| > What is involved in this process that takes 2 years?
|
| He's not saying the process will take 2 years.
|
| He's saying that no reasonable CEO will sign on to a company
| that is months away from going bankrupt. Two years of runway is
| long enough for a new CEO to find their feet, set direction,
| and work on profitability and/or fundraising.
|
| If the CEO arrives with only a few months of runway, their
| first tasks will be to cut burn rate by laying off many of the
| employees. That doesn't create a good first impression.
| bishnu wrote:
| I think what he's saying is that no-one would be willing to
| take over as CEO unless they had two years of runway ahead of
| them.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| In addition to the other answers, it sounds like they knew they
| needed more time to execute & validate the pivot.
|
| Let the original founder/visionary execute the pivot and then
| hand off the reins, rather than pull someone new in and try to
| brain-dump how you want them to pull off the pivot that mostly
| exists in your head.
| codingdave wrote:
| It isn't that the process takes two years - I'm guessing they
| were talking more about being a good career move for a CEO
| candidate:
|
| A great CEO has many options in front of them of what to do
| with their career. Asking them to take on a company that
| doesn't have much runway limits the time they have to get in,
| become the new leader, and mold the organization. Therefore, it
| is not likely to be their best option, which means the
| candidates who are interested are more likely to be not-so-
| great CEO candidates.
| duxup wrote:
| Got it, that makes a lot more sense.
| ProAm wrote:
| Twitter is the worst for long form messaging.
| Kiro wrote:
| I agree that the UI sucks but I like the constraints. It gives
| no room for filler text and every paragraph/tweet needs to have
| its own point.
| luminati wrote:
| First thanks so much for writing this. The gilded world of
| unicorn CEOs seems all roses and wine from the Techcrunch
| armchair VC/outside world, so it was eye-opening to read an
| intimate account of the cold, brutal reality of being one.
|
| That said, I have one question. What on earth was the co-founder
| doing? Isn't it the whole point of having co-founders so that you
| can share the trauma? Why did the CEO have to suffer through so
| much pain all alone?
| czbond wrote:
| From much experience with startups, founding and co-founding is
| a mental mind-f*ck at all times. Even founders of good
| companies are under constant stress to keep the thing proposed
| up. The stress and drama of running a company completely f's
| your world up long into "success"
| Aeolun wrote:
| I always wonder why people use Twitter for these braindumps? Do
| these threads just lend themselves well to starting and typing
| until it's all off your chest?
| [deleted]
| kypro wrote:
| I quite like it. It promotes a concise writing style which
| wouldn't be as acceptable if it were on a blog without
| character limits.
|
| Whenever I write something like this I've found I end up
| constructing each tweet a bit like a lengthy bullet point. I
| cut everything unnecessary and try to make my point as clearly
| as possible in as few words & tweets as possible.
|
| When I write a blog post I naturally end up optimising for
| writing quality, and what could have been 5 tweets ends up as
| 1,500 words.
| d3ntb3ev1l wrote:
| So many fine people on both sides of the Silicon Valley soap
| opera
| easton wrote:
| Thread Reader really helps for this, given the length (and some
| weird issues at least for me with twitter web).
|
| https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1316730252295454720.html
| regularemployee wrote:
| I'm not a CEO, nor do the livelihoods of people depend on me.
|
| But I feel the pain everyday of having to answer to my managers
| who are constantly asking for status on my projects. I care about
| my managers but I don't care about the projects. I hate my work.
|
| There are so many things in life that I am curious about like
| singing, drawing, gardening, bird watching, etc. I'm not good at
| any of them (nor do I wish to be) so they won't bring me any
| income. Every day I put my curiousness aside to code some stuff
| to make my managers look good.
|
| I can't quit my job to take a break because my wife and kids
| depend on my salary for money. My neighbors are suffering more
| because they are not in tech. They are trying so hard to have my
| life and I try my best to help them get into an industry I don't
| even like.
|
| Money brings so much suffering and our entire society is built on
| it. Society is greedy and wants to expand infinitely too!
| Everything in nature must eventually be owned my someone.
|
| It seems like the only way to escape is to become a CEO, make
| millions, and buy a bubble of eternal happiness as Ryan has done.
|
| I hope I don't end up behaving like his former board member.
| tossmeout wrote:
| Why not just downgrade your lifestyle to be in a cheaper
| situation? Easier said than done obviously, as that initial
| downgrade feels like a big hit. And ofc you might have
| extenuating circumstances that prevent it. But otherwise, I've
| found that you simply acclimate over time. Then you can give
| yourself breathing room to take time between jobs, or perhaps
| move to a lower-paying job you actually enjoy.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2020-10-15 23:00 UTC)